Point of View

Pam Jenoff tells her novel The Orphan’s Tale in the first-person present-tense limited-omniscient perspective from the points of view of both Noa and Astrid. Noa and Astrid narrate alternating chapters through the course of the novel, relating their personal experiences and reactions to those experiences in real-time. Jenoff ensures both women are able to tell their own stories, giving them a voice that they would not have otherwise had given the war in which they find themselves. Just because they are not soldiers fighting at the front or agents fighting with the resistance does not mean their story should not be told. Jenoff ensures they have that ability to tell their own story so readers can understand that their lives matter in the grand scheme of World War II as well. In many ways, they and other civilians are orphans of history as they...